Terry Fallis visit

Terry Fallis came to do an author talk at our library on July 4, 2013.  Having read "Up and Down" as a nominee for this year's Evergreen Award, I was so excited to meet him.  I was equally excited to get him to sign my copy of the book, which he did shortly before this photo was taken.

I found "Up and Down" to be very humorous.  I now know that that is because Terry Fallis is a humorous kind of guy.  Very witty.

He talked about the intricate engineering-oriented way he writes his novels, how he was inspired as a child watching the moon landing in 1969.  He talked about the plot of "Up and Down" and how he met with Marc Garneau (Canada's first astronaut and current Liberal Party politician) to make sure his story was accurate.

When talking about how he got his first novel published, he said that he posted it as a free podcast.  And he has continued to do so with his subsequent novels.  When I got home, I rushed to my computer and downloaded all of his books.  I briefly listened to the first track and discovered that his voice sounds much deeper in the audio than it does in person.  Listening to Mr. Fallis read part of "Up and Down" at the author talk reconfirmed my firm belief that authors are the best people to read their work aloud.  They know the work and characters far better than anyone else and can give the reading an inflection that no one else can.

Politics in general do not interest me, especially in my reading.  Having read the synopses of Fallis' first two books, "The Best Laid Plans" and "The High Road", I wasn't interested in reading political fiction no matter how humorous it might be.  However, hearing how other audience members had enjoyed the first two books and how much my friend laughed when she read "The Best Laid Plans", I now plan to read/listen to them.

I recorded the author talk on my BlackBerry and I was impressed with how effective it was.  My phone, sitting on a chair ten feet from the author, picked up not only his talk but also the questions and comments from the audience members as well.  I forgot to ask Mr. Fallis for permission to post the audio and so regretfully will not being doing so.

I greatly enjoyed Terry Fallis' author talk.  I loved the behind-the-scenes trivia about his life, his writing, and the book.  He was very entertaining and informative.  During our personal meeting, I found out that Mr. Fallis will be attending this year's The Word on the Street festival in Toronto, and has done so for many years.  I have attended for the last three years but have not met him before.  I intend to seek him out when I'm there this year and I look forward to seeing him again.

Read on,
Paula